Nas Pays Tax Debt Over $200k

Pay your bills, baby!

New York rapper Nas, considered by many to be one of the greatest of all time, isn’t that great at paying his taxes. He’s been sparring with the IRS since 2009 over unpaid taxes that date back to 2006. With interest and late fees, his debt to Uncle Sam has ballooned over seven figures.

According to TheJasmineBRAND, Nasty Nas finally shelled out the $276,464.80 he owed to the Georgia Department of Revenue. Back in 2006, this would have only costed him about $149,000, but with interest and fees it’s nearly doubled.

Although it seems like Nas has gotten himself out of debt and had his tax lien lifted, he is not alone on the list of rappers who have issues keeping up with their taxes…

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A Messy Divorce

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Nas is currently in the throes of a very messy custody battle with his ex-wife, fellow NY rapper Kelis. Since their son was born back in 2009, the same year of their split, Nas started falling behind on his taxes. There isn’t any evidence, but he could have been taking preemptive measures to horde cash in case his ex-wife was able to clear him.

Still, it’s no excuse to not pay your taxes. Especially when you’re one of the biggest selling rappers of all time with a career that spans over three decades, you should pay your bills on time. Guess you just gotta get that money!

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Could Be Worse…

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DMX should be a cautionary tale for all rappers on how not to handle the IRS. In November of 2017, Darkman X pled guilty to tax evasion. His case was a little worse than Nas because he simply wasn’t claiming his income from royalties and performances, instead opting to use cash and other people’s bank accounts to hold his money.

After his court appearance, Joon H. Kim of the New York Attorneys’ office told ABC, “Today, Earl Simmons admitted to systematically cheating on his taxes. By insisting to be paid in cash whenever possible and having royalty payments diverted to the accounts of financial surrogates, Simmons concealed hundreds of thousands of dollars of income from the IRS.”

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Moving On…

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As for Nas, the fact that he’s nipping his tax payments in the bud before they balloon out of control is a sign that he’s not letting the IRS get the best of him. Now that he’s also rumored to be dating fellow hip-hop royalty Nicki Minaj, he’s surrounded himself with people that are too smart with money to let him get too deep in debt with Uncle Sam.

Nas has come a long way from where he was. Back in 2012, Nas owed over six million dollars to the IRS in unpaid income tax. It was so bad that they filed paperwork in Georgia to garnish Nas’ royalty earnings from BMI and ASCAP until his lien was lifted.

In the past few years, Nas has undertaken some massive (and lucrative) projects. The reissue and subsequent world tour of his seminal Illmatic album — considered one of the greatest hip-hop masterpieces of all time — must have netted him more than enough money to make his tax debt seem like chump change.

We’re wishing Nas the best in the new year and hope this time around he keeps up with his bills! Don’t forget to SHARE this article with a friend!